Clinical features and prognostic factors of pediatric idiopathic sudden hearing loss from moderate to profound degree

Background: The pediatric idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (PISSNHL) is not rare in the clinics, however, the prognostic factors of PISSNHL are still unclear. Objectives: To investigate the clinical and audiologic characteristics associated with prognosis in PISSNHL. Material and methods: Clinical and audiological characteristics and possible prognostic factors were retrospectively evaluated in 76 PISSNHL patients aged less than 19 years. Results: Hearing loss was moderate in nine patients, severe in 21 patients, profound in 46 patients. Among five types of audiogram, 3.9% were classified as ascending, 11.8% as descending, 25.0% as flat, 55.3% as profound, and 3.9% as concave. The recovery rate according to Siegel's criteria was 55.3%. There was no significant difference between the recovery group and the poor recovery group in terms of age, sex, laterality of hearing loss, the onset of treatment, and accompanying symptoms (p > 0.05). The initial hearing levels and the audiogram type were significantly different in the two groups (p < 0.001) according to univariate analysis, while only the initial hearing level was significantly different (p = 0.046) according to multivariate analysis. Conclusions and significance: Prognosis of PISSNHL was mainly related to initial hearing at onset. An initial hearing level greater than 80 dB was a poor prognostic factor.